By 
By Oluwatobi Opusunju
The Nigerian military has dispelled rumors making the rounds on the internet about the de-commissioning of female cadets into the service, even as the government is making efforts to clampdown on perpetrators of fake news in the country.
The report had quoted an unnamed army general to have told an online media that President Muhammadu Buhari had signed the recommendations of the Army Council to de-commission female cadets.
The Director of Defence Information, Major General John Enenche, in a recent statement issued in Abuja, noted that the media report about stoppage of training female cadets in order to be commissioned as Regular Combatant officers into the Armed Forces of Nigeria was an act of disinformation to the general public by mischievous individuals.
“The contents of all those publications are ill intended concoctions, not authentic and should therefore be disregarded out rightly,” he said.
“Extantly, the provision in the terms and conditions of service for female officers of the Nigerian Military is that “They are eligible for all the types of Commission that are grantable to their male counterparts”, which has not changed,” he further stated.
In recent times, there has been growing concern by institutions and the government in particular about the menace of fake news being circulated especially on social media with some experts warning that if left unchecked, the country risks sinking chaos.
However, as part of plans to checkmate the menace, the government has vowed to use the law against fake news merchants. Government is revamping old laws and working on new ones to fight hate speech and fake news.
“Within our laws, we have enough to tackle this trend. I think it was Barrister Femi Falana who made a pronouncement a week or two ago that already in our statutes, we have provisions that can deal with fake news and with hate news. So, it is just a matter of implementing what we have – using the laws that we have and anybody that is caught being behind fake news or hate news should just answer for it,” said Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Mr. Femi Adesina.
